Explore Alaska by air with Sound Aviation

Volcano/Glaciers

This tour travels west across the Knik Arm, then southwest along the shoreline of Cook Inlet, past the village of Beluga and on to Mt. Spurr, an active volcano in the Tordrillo Mountains. Mt Spurr has two craters, one at 7000 ft and the other at 11000 ft. The upper crater is steaming continuously as you look into it. The lower crater has beautiful glacier icefalls down both sides of it. From Mt. Spurr we descend north into the Tordrillo mountains viewing the Capps, Triumvirate and many other glaciers that abound in this area. Glacier ice-fields crown the Tordrillos and continue down the sides in multiple rough broken glacier icefalls showing off the blue ice that glaciers are known for with every break and crevasse. We continue our descent down the Triumvirate Glacier viewing the face of it and the lakes at each of it's "three leads".

In warmer weather many brilliant blue pools of water can be seen captured on top of these glaciers. One unique feature of Triumvirate Glacier is that it actually blocks off a mountain valley which fills up with water creating Strandline Lake, approximately 5 miles long, a mile wide and 100ft deep. The Triumvirate Glacier breaks off big chunks of ice (called calving) which float around in this lake until the water fills to the point of creating enough pressure to push past the glacier sending millions of gallons of water rushing into Beluga lake and river flooding them. When this occurs, roughly every year to year and a half, the glacier ice that was floating is deposited on the ground in the mountain valley sometimes reaching heights of two or three stories. Initially these icebergs are an incredible deep blue gradually lightening as they are exposed to the elements. It is an awesome sight if we are able to catch it at the right time. From there we head northeast past Beluga Lake and back to Anchorage. Along this route we often see moose, bears, Beluga whales and seals.